General News

The hidden war

By:
Lew Irwin

Oct 10, 2001 | 10:25am EDT

The war without TV pictures continued on Tuesday, with the government releasing the first reconnaissance photos of areas in Afghanistan that had been hit by U.S. and U.K. forces. But it was impossible for the lay viewer to discern anything from a photo of what was described as a terrorist training camp. And although the outlines of runways at a bombed Taliban airfield could be made out, it was impossible to discern anything else.

Meanwhile, NBC correspondent Kerry Sanders, in a report using mobile satellite equipment, was seen reporting from near the front line of the fighting in northern Afghanistan, even as he and his cameraman were pinned down by gunfire in what he said he believed was a "friendly area." ABC News producer Tom Yelin, producer of tomorrow night's Minefield: The United States and the Muslim World, with Peter Jennings, told today's Philadelphia Inquirer, that covering the war on terrorism "is like trying to capture Osama bin Laden: You're trying to hit a moving target."